Your message was most assuredly NOT inappropriate-- au contraire!
The exchange had reached the point where I contemplatedasking you (Carl) to
compose a suitable "formal" message of a "cease and desist" type, which I
would join you in signing (the "Chairman of the Board" has to have SOME
role, doesn't he? --even if it's mostly backing up Carl). Now you have
written what needed to be said, with good result on one side. But now
"Apokrisis" has continued the war--and continues to post anonymously,
despite Ed Krentz's appeal.
I am in total agreement with David Marotta's comments (including
his wry comment that Carl's admonitions seem to hurt him more than the
recipient!). I suggest that we wait to see if "Apokrisis" posts anything
more. If he does not, well and good. If he does, and it is still unsigned
and/or in the same militant temper, I will confer with Carl about a brief
private message of warning to "Apokrisis" in our official capacity.

Again, many thanks to Carl for his continued excellent monitoring of the
dangerous edges of our mainly excellent-tempered List.

Edward Hobbs

------------------------------------------------

Carl wrote:
{Carl wrote:]
I feel very ambivalent about the message that I have just sent to the list
under the above rubric. I was really fearful yesterday that the latest
"MONOGENHS" exchange was about to erupt into a flame war, and so I
questioned the propriety of Lee Martin's lengthy message on that subject. I
had a nice personal note from him and I did respond to that in a way that I
hope was helpful, but he had already sent an apology of his own to the
list. It was dismaying, therefore, to see in this morning's BG messages:
(1) the complaint about "bantering" as fundamental to BG exchanges (which I
think doesn't reflect much careful observation), and (2) the unsigned 23K
response of "Apokrisis" to Lee Martin.

So: I sent my message and let it float. My apologies to the staff if it too
seems inappropriate. In it I tried to use some of the language that we had
attempted last fall to refine for use in a "Netiquette" section of a new
FAQ for the list, and I said that I thought it was a perspective with which
several members of the list agree. I hope that was true, but I nevertheless
had a very queasy feeling about posting my message: it seems awfully heavy,
and you may think that it too was inappropriate. If so, I'm sorry.